Turning facts into feelings | Thijs Biersteker | TEDxAmsterdam

Happy Birthday to climate change. 50 years ago climate change first appeared in scientific reports. After that, year on year, we have proven that we are causing climate change. Sadly, facts don’t move people. Emotions do. Feelings do, therefore feeling these facts is important to give facts a voice. Thats where artists come in. We have to change facts in to small personable feelings. Thijs tells us about us the time he was unbelievably shocked. He knew that nano plastics are in the sea, he knew that we were consuming them because we consume animals who eat them. What he found out was that nano plastics in the sea can in fact penetrate our membranes. Essentially nano plastics are turning us humans half plastic too. Instead of being half human half machines, we are turning into half human, half ‘tupperware container’. Biersteker outlines the power of art. The power of art is that it makes big facts small. It helps us paint the bigger picture. It helps us understand the impact it really has because we can visualise it. Thijs Beersteker helps us understand the facts and explain how he has helped achieved understanding in his recent work. Thijs Biersteker is an artist that curates installations that aim to create awareness about the crisis at hand: climate change. He combines scientific research with new technologies to reveal findings about the current climate status. Merging data from trees, old plastics, algorithms and motion, he forms eye opening installations to create eco-awareness and turn facts into feelings. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx